Apparatus for manufacturing incandescent lamps and carbons



(No Model.) W. L. VOELKER.

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING INGANDESCENT LAMPS AND UARBUNS.

Patented Jan. 3, 1882.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OiuvIcE,A l

WILLIAM L. VOELKER, 0F MORTON, PENNSYLVANIA.

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING IN'CANDESCENT LAMPS AND CARBONS.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of `Letters Patent N o. 251,749, dated January 3, 1882.

' Application filed August 5, 1881. (No modali) To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM L. VOELKER, of Morton, in the county of Delaware and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Manufacturing and TestingIncandescentElectric Lamps Aand Garbons, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, ret'- erence being had to the accompanying drawing and the letters marked thereon.

My invention relates especially to ap paratus' used in the manufacture of incandescent electric lamps, and has for its object the production of a device whereby the material of which the filaments to be used in the lamp maybe carbonized, nitrogen gas for testing the carbons may be generated, the glass bulbs of the lamp may be annealed, and the completed lamp and carbon thoroughly dried before sealing; and my invention involves certain novel and useful combinations or arrangements of parts and peculiarities of construction and operation, allv of which will be hereinafter first fully described, and then pointed out in the claims.

The drawing herewith presented represents a sectional view of my improved apparatus, indicating the location and arrangementof the various parts.

A is the outside or main wall of a furnace constructed of iron, tire-brick, or any other preferred material.

B is a tire-pot, so arranged and constructed as to supply the requisite degree of heat.

C is an air-supply pipe, connected with any style of fan or blower.

A is an oven, located directly above the tirepot, wherein the glass bulbs D are placed after forming for the purpose of annealinfr. A2 is also an oven placed above oven A. It being farther removed from 'the tire-pot does not maintain as high a degree of heat as A. In this upper oven are placed suitable conductors, aa,for connection with adynamo-machine. The heat and products of combustion pass from the lire-pot up upon each side of the ovens and out through flue B at the top of the structure, said line having connection with a suita- 4ble chimney.

C is a pipe leading from the air-supply pipe C to pipe O2, passing through the re-pot.

c2 is a suitable valve for regulating the tioW of the air through pipe C.

Pipe G2, when the device is in operation, contains copper filings c.

G3 is a tube communicating with a series of flasks, E, containing sulphuric acidi, and from said asks communication is had with iasks E2, containing hydrate of potassium, the latter flasks communicating with tube E, containing chlorideof calcium. Fis a receiver, connected with pipe E3 by means of tube F.

G is a suitable muflle, containing the tilaments to be carbonized. Y

G is a carbon, with its proper connections for use in a lamp, placedin'receiverF; and G2 are lamps ready to seal, connected up with wires a a in oven A2.

H is a dynamo-machine, and H is a resistance-coil.

" H2 H2 are resistance-circuits for regulating the strength of the current from the dynamo.

My device for the manufacture of the nitrogen to be used in testing the carbons, as above When the filaments of carbon have been prepared in oven A they are united to their connections and placed in the receiver F and in the dynamo circuit, as shown. It is often the case that there will exist in a tilament a iiaw or imperfection imperceptible to the eye, and which could not be discovered until the completed lamp was putin use, when, if such flaw existed, it would render the lamp worthless, for, when heated to incandescence, that being the point of greatest resistance, the carbon would heat unequally and soon break. This difficulty I overcome by testing the carbonsin F by passing a current from the dynamo therethrough before sealing up permanently in the lamp-bulb, and if any carbon is found imperfeet it may be discarded with very little loss of timeor useless expense.

It is a well-known fact that carbon, particularly in the form of charcoal, or that manufactured from the coke of gas-retorts, has the property of absorbing moisture in a very high degree, which, if made into a filament for use in an incandescent lamp and placed in the bulb and heat applied to the exterior of the lamp, would not thereby be expelledg but by use of IOO my improved device the lamps may be completed, except sealing up, and placed in oven A2, as shown. By passing a current from the dynamoproperly regulated by resistance through the carbons and maintaining them at a temperature a little below red heat all themoisture will be expelled. The glass globes being kept hot by the fire-pot, there is no danger of condensation taking place therein. After remaining a sufficient time in oven A2 the lamps are removed to the air-pump and sealed in the manner well known and understood by these skilled in the art to which my invention relates. If the moisture were not expelled from the carbon, as above explained, and the lamp after being exhausted were used for illuminating purposes, as soon as the electric current heated the filament of carbon therein to a white heat, any moisture would be decomposed into gases highly destructive to the same.

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim as new therein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The herein-described device for manufacturing and testing incandescent electric lamps, consisting of afurnace or fire-pot supplied with an air-blast, the annealing-oven and the drying-oven located above said re-pot, and the nitrogen=generutor in said {ire-pot, the Whole combined and arranged to operate substantia-lly as setforth.

2. The herein-described method of expelling the moisture from the glass bulbs of incandescent electric lamps and their inclosed carbon by subjecting said lamps before sealing to heat ot' the requisite temperature and at the same time passing'an electric current therethrough, substantiallyr as shown and described.

.3. In a device for manufacturing and testing incandescent lamps and carbons. the tire-pot B, blast-pipe C, pipes G and G2, annealingoven A', and dryingbven A2, the Whole combined and arranged to operate substantially as shown and described.

4. In a device formanufacturing and test ing incandescent electric lamps and carbons, the combination, with the oven A2, heated by tire-pot B, of the conductors a a, having connection with a dynamo-machine, substantially as shown and described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two witnesses.

- WILLIAM L. VOELKER.

Witnesses F. W. HANAFORD, A. M. Pinnen. 

